Why You Wouldn't Want to Live in the DOTJE Universe

Who doesn't love the JetPunk Empires. You can command your own country, engage with other countries, and generally have fun. But have you ever thought about the lives of common citizens in the empires? Let's take a look at why their lives would be pretty terrible...

Perhaps the most outstanding issue: constant war. Not a single day can pass without some global superpower throwing innocent people into the meat grinder. Many of these wars don't even result in anything significant, just needless bloodshed and violence. Nobody wants to solve things via diplomacy or negotiation, just war, war, war.

Now, some wars are justified, but many are certainly not. Surely you wouldn't want to live in constant fear of conscription because some imperialist in charge wants a rock in the middle of nowhere. Heck, some empires even prolong wars for no reason other than to exhaust the enemy military.

To add onto the previous point, uncertainty is too common in this universe. Too many live in fear of whether their city will be shelled in an unprovoked attack. Too many live in fear of whether they will have to leave their wives, children, and home behind to go fight some country they've never heard of. Too many live in fear of whether a nuclear superweapon will destroy them before they can even make it downstairs. And far too many live in fear of whether their tiny village will be invaded overnight.

Ethnic / religious dispute and separatism would also be rampant. Take the Veggie Caliphate for example. How do you efficiently manage a Californian city, the Galapagos, a good chunk of the Arab World, tons of African tribes, and the southern Nigerian Christians all in one country? There must be constant disputes for independence. And this isn't just the Veggies; India also maintains jurisdiction from Kazakhstan to Madagascar. In fact, nearly every significant empire must be tearing at the seams from all the ethnic clashing.

Armenia, has, however gained their independence from the Veggies — a successful ethnic nationalism petition. Perhaps this will lead to other ethnic groups gaining their independence as well... but we can only wait.

Okay, so this one may be over-exaggerating. While no empire is North Korea-levels of oppressive (at least as far as I know), many citizens are granted less rights based on very arbitrary things. Some empires, for instance, grant more rights to JetPunkers. And yes, anyone can sign up and reap the benefits, you shouldn't have to in order to enjoy more rights.

Thankfully, the Veggie Caliphate, perhaps the most strict of all regarding these policies, has reversed them. Good news for liberty worldwide.

Finally... the enclaves! There far are too many to count, that should give you a good idea of what a problem this is. Not only does it contribute to really ugly borders, but it also makes transportation and management much, much harder, especially if the country that surrounds your enclave isn't friendly.

Take Chobe National Park in Botswana for example. It is ruled by Minas Gerais and surrounded entirely by Botswana-Palapye. Despite this, it is over 685 miles from the sea and over 4,000 (!) miles from the national homeland. This makes supplies nearly impossible to transport, and that especially isn't helped by the fact that the two countries aren't exactly the best of friends.

In conclusion, it's pretty fun to control empires and wage war, but this scenario would be terrible for people actually living through it. Maybe something to look upon when you make your decisions.

Thanks for reading.